ON THE MOUNTAINS 185 



effect, he melts into the Highland air, fades into 

 the grass ; and, though I never lose the uneasy 

 sense that he is fixing me from behind every stone 

 or tuft of mountain meadow grass, he returns no 

 more. 



It is characteristic of these glens in the north- 

 west corner of Forfar, that their wild flowers, with 

 very few exceptions, are much alike. What you 

 find in one, you may look for in the other. And 

 as I shall visit a second, it is the less needful to 

 tell all that grows here. 



Indeed, the similarity, if not so close, holds of 

 that concentration of the Highlands, that eternal 

 gathering of the clans, where the three counties 

 of Forfar, Perth, and Aberdeen meet. It may be 

 worth noticing, in the passing, that Perth and 

 Forfar have an equal number of alpines, but not 

 quite the same. Seven are absent from each 

 county, which are present in the other. 



The purple mountain milk vetch, so common on 

 seaside links, and again on the lower slopes of hills, 

 passes, at a certain height on Craigmad, into the 

 alpine form, which is mainly white, only tipped 

 with purple. Elsewhere this alpine is found on 

 Craigandree, at Braemar. A similar form, the 

 yellow mountain oxytropis, grows among these 



